Get It Straight, Or Say Good Night

Nice Weather

***************

"John called, I said you would be back by eight" Harold Harrison looked up over his newspaper as his daughter carted the sleeping baby and accompanying baby bags through to the stairs, Louie had clear forgot it was her night to call. She frowned as she set her handbag down then continued up the stairs to put Evie to bed.

"Did you tell him da?... where I was" Lou tried acting nonchalant but her father set the paper aside to cast a dour eye over his daughter.

"I said you had been taken out to dinner"

*

She toyed with the cord and bit down on her lip as she dialled the flat, John was sure to have a mountain of questions. Should she ignore them and say that it was none of his business or come straight out and-

"Oh hello, sorry I missed your call" Louie pulled the cord of the telephone to near breaking point, so that the device sat on the floor in the doorway of the kitchen, Lou then stood further away still, near the larder. Out of her  father's earshot she desperately hoped.

"Tis alright" John said happily. Lou pondered this reply quickly....1. This was possible a cover for his being so angry he had hit the nearest wall or 2. he was indeed just 'alright'.

Louise tasted blood and let her lip alone to talk to him.

"Arrr Evie's asleep all pooped out she is"

"Oh, little darling, did she go to dinner too?"
John's voice was like caramel... thick and drizzling down the line, she liked talking to him on the telephone, for this very reason, he made her feel something, when he spoke.

He could say something boringly conversational, like 'tis alright' like he just did now and a few little goosebumps would raise their little hairy heads along her arm.

She rubbed her arm.

"Yes, howled a bit but settled with a complimentary bread roll in her fist" Lou laughingly recalled to John how Evie then went about throwing the roll at the couple dining at the table beside them.

"So, went with your Ma?" John inquired politely, Louie frowned, he was pulling the night out of her piece by tiny piece.

Like a box of tissues he would get to the end shortly.

"No, with Doctor Nate actually, was a nice surprise actually, he was...he was in town for business" There, she thought, done! Although two actually's in one sentence was a little over the top, he had to know she was terribly nervous.

Nevertheless it was done! One nice clean yank and off!! Strip the blasted tape from the gaping wound then followup with administering of a new stickier tape to the slightly bigger and deeper gouge she had just ripped open.

The reference to injuries and pain was not lost on her seeing as she was talking about the doctor.

"Oh nice" Johns voice sank a little, the boat was taking on water, his jovial chat now floundering, showing a little more of his feelings. "Will he be by again, do you suppose?"

Lou was back biting her fingernails trying to sort her mind to his particualar set of emotions. Was there some sort of problem here or was he being friendly, inquiring politely to a friend's evening?

Perhaps .... John was now just John again. The boy from the cavern that asked her to shout him endless bevvies and joined her in ganging up and making fun of Paul and her younger immature brother, his younger bandmate-

...... she forgot to answer his question.

"Lou!?" He banged the phone heavily on the telephone table beside him "Bloody British Telecom the fags, bloody telephone line drop outs. Why do we pay them that's what I'd like to know. Bunch of lazy arsed government gits- " John moaned on, waking her from her ponderings.

"No! John I'm here" Louise stopped biting her nails and twirled the cord "No, he's definitely back to London tomorrow"

"Oh" John was almost whispering. Louise shoved the telephone ear piece much closer to her ear. She would most likely have an imprint for a week the way it was pressed there or otherwise it would be permanently attached, having melted into her "I see .... you like him? He being a doctor an' all, a good catch I suspect. Got that nice looking Jag too"

Louise let out a breath he was jealous, he felt something "Yes I like him, he's very nice but..."

"but?"

Heartbeats rushed by.

"But.... I'm not interested in him, in that way" Now Lou was whispering, hoping desperately her mother didn't walk in the door from her bridge night nor her father rise from his armchair to see why it was so quiet.

"He'd be a good catch Lou" Now John was coming at her from an entirely different direction and she felt like boxing his ear, he was pushing her buttons making her not know what was happening, he had her rudderless and she felt the river suddenly change it's calm flow into choppy rapids.

"You want me to go out with him then?" Lou queried in response, grasping the receiver ever so tightly, wanting desperately for him to say something, anything ..... She wasn't blind to her feelings. She liked John, she felt happy as a wife when they were playing 'ouse, she missed him.. grumpy moods an' all.

"Arr well not really, but I want you happy so if it's him so bloody be it" John grumbled dejectedly "But Evie's still mine for visits"

"I wouldn't have it any other way, and like I said I'm not interested"

"You're not?"

"No John"

"Well ok then, I suppose you'll be ok with whoever you end up liken' then when you decide ........ Any-way how is the weather up there, shocking here, storms every afternoon it seems-"

Lou smiled, John was off and racing, his conversational side taking over and offering tidbits of his busy life. Lou looked about the drab kitchen, her life was so dull in compare. A bit like she was moving about in black and white and he was that new wonderful technicolor, yes he was vibrant, a rainbow of colour he was.

"Mctrouble said to say hi but I'm not... hang on I just did, didn't I? ..anyway you'll be 'appy to know I've been busier than a mosquito on a nudist beach finishing off the album, been right hectic what with boring interviews and God Lou, the amount of photographs they take. One should be enough I would think... "

It was good to get the conversation away from Nate and that dinner.

In the end they rang off in peals of laughter after John told her a funny antedote about George and a lobster at a posh restaurant- the waiter brought a lovely creature out of a holding tank filled with the things and.. well George got a bit of a pinch before dinner!

Completely and utterly, like the scaredy cats they were, they again resisted the urge to test the other person on the line for answers they may not like to hear.

She mounted the stairs afterwards like every other time John had telephoned.

Wishing her roads were easy. Paved with open and honest conversations and not potholes of double meanings, wishy wash replies and doubt.